A pipelined virtual multiple instance finite state machine (VMI FSM) runs multiple logical instances of a FSM concurrently. If a resource required by a FSM instance is unavailable at the target of an output token to be generated and sent by the FSM instance, then the output token cannot be sent to the target. If one of the FSM instances encounters a resource problem (i.e., a resource required by the FSM instance is unavailable) (e.g., a buffer is missing), conventional techniques stall the pipeline until the unavailable resource becomes available. Other FSM instances in the pipelined VMI FSM, however, cannot execute (i.e., cannot process input tokens) while the pipeline is stalled, even though the other FSM instances may not have the same resource unavailability problem because they are in a state that is different from the state of the FSM instance that has the resource unavailability problem. Similarly, a pipelined virtual multiple instance extended finite state machine (VMI EFSM) runs multiple logical instances of an EFSM concurrently and an output token cannot be sent to a target if a resource required by an EFSM instance is unavailable at the target, The VMI EFSM pipeline is stalled if a resource required by an EFSM instance is unavailable, thereby preventing other EFSM instances from executing, including any other EFSM instance that does not have the aforementioned resource unavailability problem. Thus, there exists a need to overcome at least one of the preceding deficiencies and limitations of the related art.